RUGBY, England, December 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
Britons Reveal Their Top Festive Frustrations
Christmas is all about coming together as a family, sharing laughter and joy and getting along with your parents, partner and in-laws… or maybe not?
A poll of 1,000 Brits, commissioned by homes solutions specialist Häfele UK, shows that over half of British families (56%) will be rubbing each other up the wrong way over the festive period due to their annoying habits.
The biggest festive frustration is loved ones placing empty wrappers back into the chocolate tin, rankling with over one in three Brits, closely followed by wasting food (30%) and doing nothing to help around the house (26%).
These festive frustrations are leading to family fall-outs across the UK - households in the North West have the shortest tempers and the most squabbles, with loved ones' annoying habits causing 67% to argue over the Christmas season.
Londoners are avoiding family gripes by spending the least additional time with their frustrating nearest and dearest, at only four hours, 57 minutes per day.
Rachel Willcock from Häfele UK said: "Small annoyances can come to the fore when you're spending more time with family at Christmas, and when dinner prep and entertaining expectations are putting you under pressure.
"Sadly, our research showed that two out of three Brits only really start to enjoy the company of their family when the stress of Christmas Day is over and nearly half (43%) of UK women admit that they would get along better with their partners and families if they helped to tidy up more on the big day."
Remarkably, one in 10 Brits are losing at least the equivalent of an entire day of their Christmas working leave(seven hours or more) to tidying up after the festive season.
Some regions however, are using more of their precious time off for restoring order than others - on average, families in Northern Ireland are spending over twice as long (6 hours, 53 minutes) clearing up than those in the North East (3 hours, 17 minutes).
Rachel continues: "We want Brits to spend less time stressing and instead enjoy more quality time together over the festive period. We recommend having your cooking essentials to hand and getting the whole family involved in making this Christmas extra special.
"With a bit of clever storage and making sure there's a place for everything, we could save Britain almost 450 million hours of tidying up time after the festive holidays.
"Häfele can offer storage solutions, but unfortunately we can't do anything about those pesky empty wrappers in the chocolate tin!"
Let us know your #FestiveFrustrations and your plans for spending #XmasTogether on Twitter and view the Häfele festive frustrations infographic.
Britain's Top 12 Festive Frustrations are:
- Putting empty chocolate wrappers back in the tin
- Wasting food
- Doing nothing to help
- Buying so much food there is nowhere to store it
- Not taking the bins out
- Making a mess when cooking Christmas dinner
- Being disorganised
- Drinking too early in the day
- Being over-competitive at board games
- Getting stressed in a small kitchen
- Complaining they're full - then immediately eating more
- Making everyone wear the paper hats out of crackers
About Häfele:
Häfele is an internationally-trusted specialist in innovative furniture fittings, accessories, hardware and systems, whose solutions have been improving the way that homes work since 1923.
For further information on Häfele and its products, please visit the consumer inspiration site at http://www.ideasforliving.co.uk.
Media Contacts:
Emilie Whelan, +44-(0)115-9486900 or hafele@bcsagency.com
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